Monthly Archives: April 2014
On the Road to Alaska . . .
Thought maybe I’d relate some of our travels during our first year on the road. We weren’t blogging then, so all we have are all the photos we took, and some emails Jan sent to friends and family.
Although we left Houston on February 6th, the Alaska part kind of started on April 9th, 2008. But between then, we did Las Cruces, Casa Grande, Yuma, San Diego, Long Beach, Las Vegas, Flagstaff, Phoenix, Tucson, Denver, Casper, Billings, Sturgis, and Coeur d’Alene.
After Coeur d’Alene our first stop was Cle Elum, WA. The attraction for Cle Elum is the fact that it’s right down the road from Roslyn, WA, which stood in for the fictional town of Cicely, AK, in the TV show Northern Exposure.
And it’s all still here.
The Roslyn Café.
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Chris’ KBHR Radio Station
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The Brick Bar
But the inside is completely different from the show.
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And here’s Ruth-Anne’s General Store.
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The first thing you notice is that Cicely (Roslyn) is much hillier in real life than on the show.
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And you remember Maurice’s big house on the lake. Well this is what it looks like in person. It’s actually pretty run-down. No lake anywhere nearby, either. Just goes to show you how TV shows can fool you.
Northern Exposure was supposedly loosely based on Talkeetna, AK, but the town did not want the TV show filmed there, so Roslyn was selected. All of the inside scenes were filmed in a converted warehouse over in Redmond, WA.
On April 13th we entered Canada at Sumas, WA, about 25 miles northeast of Bellingham, and spent our first night at the Brookside Campsite in Cache Creek, BC after a 172 mile trip.
Note Mister wondering what all the fuss is about Canada.
One funny thing we found when we got up the next morning (note the time) was Mister sound asleep atop the kitchen cabinet. We’re not even sure how he got up there.
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And from the look on his face when he woke up, neither was he.
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We spent the second night 269 miles away at the Southside RV Park in Prince George, BC, and saw our first Moose Warning sign.
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And then a 254 mile trip took us to Tubby’s RV Park in Dawson Creek, BC, the official beginning of the Alaskan Highway.
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We also saw our first Magpie’s there.
We ended up spending 3 nights in Dawson Creek due to bad weather and very high winds. In fact semi’s were banned from the highway.
And if the semi’s ain’t going, I ain’t going either.
I’ll follow up with more Alaska another time.
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Thought for the Day:
The NSA – "We’re the only part of government who actually listens to the people.”
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Blood Moon Rising . . .
I spent some time outside last night getting some pictures of the Blood Moon Eclipse,
But the photos didn’t come out as well as I had hoped, for two reasons. First off, I couldn’t find either my monopod or my tripod. I suspect they got packed away when I was going through the bins. And second, it was 40 degrees outside which made it hard to hold the camera steady. And I can’t really operate it with gloves on.
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About half way through the eclipse, the red started coming out.
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Here it’s almost done. I couldn’t get a good photo of the full eclipse because there wasn’t enough light for my camera to focus on.
I’m glad the weather cooperated in seeing this. And even better, there are 3 more coming in the next 18 months – Oct. 8, 2014, April 4, 2015, and Sept. 28, 2015.
So see all four and collect the entire set.
A little after 5pm Jan and I headed over to Vernon’s Kuntry Katfish tor supper. We first ate here a couple of weeks ago when we were here at the Lake Conroe Thousand Trails the first time. This time Jan had the Grilled Catfish Filets, and I had the Fried Catfish and Shrimp. The catfish is as good as the Sealand Seafood Restaurant over in La Grange, but I think the shrimp here is frozen, not fresh. It had that very slight mushy texture that’s usually a giveaway.
We also got an order of their Fried Green Tomatoes. Again really good.
Afterwards we drove across the road to the Wal-Mart to get the ingredients for the dishes we’re taking to Brandi’s Easter dinner this coming Sunday. By popular request, Jan’s fixing her Squash Casserole, and of course, her Sausage Balls. Those are the first thing everyone asks. Is Jan White bringing her Sausage Balls.
The recipes for both of these can be found under the Jan’s Favorite Recipes tab.
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Thought for the Day:
I have a very strict gun control policy: If there’s a gun in the room, I want to be in control of it. – Clint Eastwood
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